The government should make social protection programs adaptive to climate change and disasters, a study published by state think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies said.
The study – Toward an adaptive social protection in the Philippines –noted the need to unify the country’s social protection, climate change adaptation, and disaster risk reduction efforts.
This is because climate change and natural disasters can undermine the social protection programs of the government, the report said.
“Without adequate social protection in place, households may adopt adverse coping mechanisms in the face of slow-onset climatic shifts, such as changing eating patterns that may result to poor nutrition, pulling children out of school, or engaging them into child labor,” the policy note said.
It also argued that climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction alone are insufficient in addressing these vulnerabilities.
At present, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) plays a significant role in providing social protection programs to the poor, vulnerable, and disadvantaged, as well as protective services during crisis situations.
However, the study urged the Climate Change Commission (CCC, in-charge of climate change adaptation), the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC, in-charge of disaster risk reduction), and the Office of Civil Defense (OCD, implementing arm of the NDRRMC) to work together to build the resilience of the poor and the vulnerable.
To do this, the report said the government should first review its existing social protection programs and identify those that can be integrated with climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction.
Specifically, the authors mentioned DSWD’s flagship anti-poverty program, the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, as a good starting point that can include environmental protection in its scope, such as reforestation, prevention of illegal logging, solid waste management, and soil conservation or backyard gardening.
On the part of the CCC, the authors said it should ensure that proposals to be evaluated for the People’s Survival Fund (PSF) include social protection components.
“The 3As framework (anticipatory/ absorptive/adaptive) mapped against the PPP-T framework (provision/ promotive/protective-transformative) can be used to judge the social protection components of the PSF proposals,” the policy note said, adding the DSWD should also be part of the CCC’s technical evaluation committee.
